People who bought this also bought...

Plum Island

Wounded in the line of duty, NYPD homicide cop John Corey is convalescing in rural eastern Long Island when an attractive young couple he knows is found shot to death on the family patio. The victims were biologists at Plum Island, a research site rumored to be an incubator for germ warfare. Suddenly, a local double murder takes on shattering global implications - and thrusts Corey and two extraordinary women into a dangerous search for the secret of Plum Island....

Up Country

In the latest from Nelson DeMille (author of The Lion's Game), Paul Brenner is called out of CID retirement to investigate the murder 30 years ago of an army lieutenant in Vietnam. Brenner's trip up country, with a beautiful American expatriate for company, will lead him to uncover an explosive, long-buried secret.

The General's Daughter

Captain Ann Campbell is a West Point graduate, the daughter of legendary General "Fighting Joe" Campbell. She is the pride of Fort Hadley until, one morning, her body is found, naked and bound, on the firing range.

The Charm School

Something very strange -- and sinister -- is going on in the Russian woods at Borodino. In a place called Mrs. Ivanova's Charm School, young KGB agents are being taught by American POW's how to be model citizens of the USA. The Soviet goal -- to infiltrate the United States undetected. When an unsuspecting American tourist stumbles upon this secret, he sets in motion a CIA investigation that will reveal horrifying police state savagery and superpower treachery.

The Gold Coast

Welcome to the fabled Gold Coast, that stretch on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America. Here two men are destined for an explosive collision: John Sutter, Wall Street lawyer, holding fast to a fading aristocratic legacy; and Frank Bellarosa, the Mafia don who seizes his piece of the staid and unprepared Gold Coast like a latter-day barbarian chief and draws Sutter and his regally beautiful wife, Susan, into his violent world.

The Gate House

When John Sutter's aristocratic wife killed her mafia don lover, John left America and set out in his sailboat on a three-year journey around the world, eventually settling in London. Now, 10 years later, he has come home to the Gold Coast, that stretch of land on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America, to attend the imminent funeral of an old family servant.

Word of Honor

He is a good man, a brilliant corporate executive, an honest, handsome family man admired by men and desired by women. But a lifetime ago Ben Tyson was a lieutenant in Vietnam.There the men under his command committed a murderous atrocity -- and together swore never to tell the world what they had done. Now the press, army justice, and the events he tried to forget have caught up with Ben Tyson.

Spencerville

Back from the Cold War, intelligence officer Keith Landry returns to his hometown of Spencerville, Ohio. Twenty-five years after their last encounter, Keith runs into his first love, Annie, now unhappily married to the town's chief of police--an abusive alcoholic. In his efforts to reclaim Annie, Keith will have to draw on all the skills of a violent lifetime.

The Quest: A Novel

From the locked archives of the Vatican to the overgrown jungles of Ethiopia, an unlikely trio begins a deadly search for the Holy Grail. Two journalists and a beautiful photographer are traveling together in a broken down Jeep while covering the 1975 Ethiopian civil war. Both men fall in love with the woman and that complicates things. When the trio winds up lost in the jungle, in the no man's land between the fighting factions, they take cover and dig in for the night. In their hiding place, they encounter a dying man who tells them an amazing and quite unbelievable story. But for some reason - one that they grapple with for the rest of their journey - that night they believe.

Mayday

Twelve miles above the Pacific Ocean, a missile strikes a jumbo passenger jet and leaves the flight crew either crippled or dead. This is the story of how three survivors must achieve the impossible and land the plane. Master storyteller Nelson DeMille and veteran pilot Thomas Block collaborated on Mayday, the most terrifyingly realistic air disaster thriller of all time. Also available abridged.

The Talbot Odyssey

For 40 years Western intelligence agents have known a terrible secret: the Russians have a mole - code-named Talbot - inside the CIA. At first Talbot is suspected of killing European agents. Then a street-smart ex-cop uncovers a storm of espionage and murder on the streets of New York, while in a Long Island suburb a civic demonstration against the Russian mission masks a desperate duel of nerves and wits. Engineered by Talbot, a shadow world of suspicion and deceit is spilling onto the streets....

By the Rivers of Babylon

Lod Airport, Israel: Two Concorde jets take off for a U.N. conference that will finally bring peace to the Middle East. Covered by F-14 fighters, accompanied by security men, the planes carry warriors, pacifists, lovers, enemies, dignitaries - and a bomb planted by a terrorist mastermind. Suddenly they're forced to crash-land at an ancient desert site. Here, with only a handful of weapons, the men and women of the peace mission must make a desperate stand against an army of crack Palestinian commandos....

Cathedral

St. Patrick's Day, New York City. Everyone is celebrating, but everyone is in for a shock. Born into the heat and hatred of the Northern Ireland conflict, IRA man Brian Flynn has masterminded a brilliant terrorist act: the seizure of Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Among his hostages: the woman Brian Flynn once loved, a former terrorist turned peace activist.

Night School: A Jack Reacher Novel, Book 21

It's 1996, and Reacher is still in the army. In the morning they give him a medal, and in the afternoon they send him back to school. That night he's off the grid. Out of sight, out of mind. Two other men are in the classroom - an FBI agent and a CIA analyst. Each is a first-rate operator, each is fresh off a big win, and each is wondering what the hell they are doing there. Then they find out: A jihadist sleeper cell in Hamburg, Germany, has received an unexpected visitor - a Saudi courier seeking safe haven while waiting to rendezvous with persons unknown.

No Man's Land: John Puller Series

John Puller's mother disappeared nearly 30 years ago. Despite an intensive search and investigation, she was never seen again. But new allegations have come to light suggesting that Puller's father - now suffering from dementia and living in a VA hospital - may have murdered his wife. Puller is officially barred from working on the case and faces a potential court-martial if he disobeys the order, but he knows he can't sit this investigation out.

American Assassin

Before he was considered a CIA superagent, before he was thought of as a terrorists worst nightmare, and before he was both loathed and admired by the politicians on Capitol Hill, Mitch Rapp was a gifted college athlete without a care in the world . . . and then tragedy struck.

The Wrong Side of Goodbye: A Harry Bosch Novel, Book 21

Harry Bosch is California's newest private investigator. He doesn't advertise, he doesn't have an office, and he's picky about who he works for, but it doesn't matter. His chops from 30 years with the LAPD speak for themselves. Soon one of Southern California's biggest moguls comes calling. The reclusive billionaire has less than six months to live and a lifetime of regrets. He hires Bosch to find out whether he has an heir.

Memory Man

Amos Decker's life changed forever - twice. The first time was on the gridiron. A big, towering athlete, he was the only person from his hometown of Burlington ever to go pro. But his career ended before it had a chance to begin. On his very first play, a violent helmet-to-helmet collision knocked him off the field for good and left him with an improbable side effect - he can never forget anything.

First Strike: A Thriller

Deep within the Pentagon, a covert multibillion arms-for-influence program was created. The objective was to protect the United States and its allies from terrorist acts by secretly enabling a handpicked man to emerge as the most powerful leader in the Middle East. But the charismatic Tristan Nazir double-crosses America, twisting the program for his own violent ends to create ISIS. Now America is at great risk.

The Whistler

Lacy Stoltz is an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. She is a lawyer, not a cop, and it is her job to respond to complaints dealing with judicial misconduct. After nine years with the board, she knows that most problems are caused by incompetence, not corruption. But a corruption case eventually crosses her desk. A previously disbarred lawyer is back in business with a new identity. He now goes by the name Greg Myers, and he claims to know of a Florida judge who has stolen more money than all other crooked judges combined.

The Black Widow

Gabriel Allon, the art restorer, spy, and assassin described as the most compelling fictional creation "since Ian Fleming put down his martini and invented James Bond" (Rocky Mountain News), is poised to become the chief of Israel's secret intelligence service. But on the eve of his promotion, events conspire to lure him into the field for one final operation. ISIS has detonated a massive bomb in the Marais district of Paris, and a desperate French government wants Gabriel to eliminate the man responsible before he can strike again.

Escape Clause: A Virgil Flowers Novel, Book 9

The first storm comes from, of all places, the Minnesota zoo. Two large and very rare Amur tigers have vanished from their cage, and authorities are worried sick that they've been stolen for their body parts. Traditional Chinese medicine prizes those parts for home remedies, and people will do extreme things to get what they need. Some of them are a great deal more extreme than others - as Virgil is about to find out.

The One Man: A Novel

It's 1944. Physics professor Alfred Mendel and his family are trying to flee Paris when they are caught and forced onto a train along with thousands of other Jewish families. At the other end of the long, torturous train ride, Alfred is separated from his family and sent to the men's camp, where all of his belongings are tossed on a roaring fire. His books, his papers, his life's work. The Nazis have no idea what they have just destroyed. And without that physical record, Alfred is one of only two people in the world with his particular knowledge.

Orphan X

Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He's also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as part of the off-the-books black box Orphan program, designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence assets - i.e. assassins. He was Orphan X. Evan broke with the program, using everything he learned to disappear.

Publisher's Summary

It's one of the most dangerous and volatile countries in the world: Yemen. A Middle Eastern hotbed of corruption and insurgency and the perfect training ground for Islamic terrorists. When FBI agents John Corey and Kate Mayfield are assigned to overseas posts in Sana'a, Yemen's capital city, they are tasked with hunting down a high-ranking Al Qaeda operative. This man, known as The Panther, is wanted for terrorist acts and multiple murders and the US government is determined to bring him down, no matter the cost. As latecomers to a deadly game, John and Kate don't know the rules, the players or the score. What they do know is that there is more to their assignment than meets the eye - and that the hunters are about to become the hunted. In an action-packed and terrifying race to take down one of the most ruthless men alive, Nelson DeMille reunites readers with his charismatic hero John Corey.

I've read all of Demille's novels. What keeps me coming back is his use of language - it's precise and evocative where needed, and well-paced at all times. "The Panther" maintains the standard. It's a classical story in the Demille style and isn't let down by mis-steps in plot or characterization. However, the same can't be said for the narration or the narrator.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Scott Brick?

George Guidall - his ability to add mood to a narrative when required and to highlight plot movement is legendary. By contrast, Scott Brick has an annoying and off-putting habit of wringing every ounce of gravitas from the simplest text - particularly irritating when the text is descriptive only. When I saw that he was narrating, I was tossing up whether to buy the audio version or opt for the digital edition to read on my Nexus 7 instead. I persevered with the audio book, hoping that someone at Audible.com might have told Scott to up his game. Sadly, his reading of "The Panther" was worse than most. I found myself screaming at him to wake up and learn his trade. So please, in future Audible.com, don't let him near a book of this quality until he has gone back to school and learnt the art of of story-telling. In writing the above criticism, I am well aware of the plaudits that have gone the way of Scott Brick, not the least of which was the naming of him as "Narrator of the Year". I was incredulous when I read his list of awards and have thought that it must be me who is the idiot here. For those who want an example of the lack of timbre, tempo and depth to which I refer, simply listen to the opening paragraph of Demille's latest masterpiece where Brick breathlessly sets the scene. This intro is meant to be descriptive, but because Scott maintains his anxious and eager enthusiasm from the get-go, we're not gently lead into the plot development. On the contrary, we're expected to maintain our heightened fervour throughout. (Contrast this with George Gudall's introduction in the latest Daniel Silva thriller - "The Fallen Angel". Like "The Panther", the intro sets the scene. It is conveyed to us - the listeners - in a way that demands attention, because the details are important for later plot development. But George knows there's more to come that will need his narrator's skills, and that those skills will need to be attuned most keenly to the overall plot development. His tone and pace tell us exactly where the text before him stands in the totality of the plot. He's not trying to ring some dramatic blood from the story where the author never intended any. He's simply telling it as it is.) I only wish that Scott could do the same.I recently re-played an old copy of Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment" (circa 1984) and was agreeably surprised to have it confirmed that the narrator's skill is not new - in fact, it's something that's been around since cavemen sat in front of their fires regaling each other with tales of their exploits. I have no doubt that the best and most revered of those storytellers were those who were able to build tension based on the development of the plot - not slam into it from the first word. As a final example, and final word, on this topic, Scott Brick's narration of the author's dedication is instructive. It reads: "To the memory of Joan Dillingham, who maintained her Viking spirit throughout her beautiful life." Authors' dedications are a personal tribute to folk who have had an impact on the authors' lives, and it's the author's way of acknowledging that fact. It has nothing to do with the tale being told; it is a statement of fact. One might reasonably expect, therefore, that the dedication, if read, would be delivered with some deadpan solemnity at the very most, just as one might reasonably expect that it would NOT be delivered with the breathless enthusiasm that the climax of the plot deserves. Unfortunately, Scott fails to understand this most basic requirement. In short, (and I'm sorry to say this, Scott), you ruined a fantastic story.

Demille has been a great story teller with engaging books such as Word Of Honor, Up Country, Spencerville, where action, introspection (characters beautifully carved out) , a pinch of sex and of humor would keep high your attention and your interest through the end of the book. Those days have gone. The book is endless and it is a challenge to get through the end. The character of John Corey has worn out and it is both boring and pathetic with his jokes of a 15 years old... Neléson Demille, you can do better ..

Well, yeah, there is. The plot actually. Although the basic story sounds like a no-brainer for a good book, deMille this time simply didn't manage to pull it off. Maybe it was just one "we are hunting the Arabian terrorist with a chip on his shoulder" story too much. It's hard to be precise for me here, but the story seemed a little tedious, although there was a lot going on and the desciptions in Jemen were very good and gave me a nice picture of the surroundings it seemed that the story was not really moving forward. It was a little like story for story's sake.In addition John Corey for the first time (read them all) really really got on my nerves and I would have liked to kick his wisecracking butt back to NYC. Introducing another alpha male - Paul Brenner - whom I liked very much in "General's Daughter" and "Up Country" was not the stroke of genius it first seemed to be. First of all he was only a supporting figure which he doesn't deserve, and second he is a wiseass too and two wiseasses where too much this time. In addition Brick uses the same intonation for both of them and that sometimes gets confusing in certain dialogs.What I really couldn't understand though was the bad guy. After such terrific villains as the Lion, Frederic Tobin or our favorite CIA guy Ted Nash (R.I.P.) to name only a few, this guy - the Panther - seemed to be totally pathetic and not an opponent at all to any of our three heroes. The guy is arrogant, stupid and basically only a thug and worst of all incompetent as a terrorist. I mean killing tourist is not a terribly nice thing to do but it really doesn't take a genius to accomplish it. His final hideout was a joke and the story's end beyond anticlimactic. In essence I was glad it was over but if the ending had been better it might have made the whole book a bit better. Maybe it's time for John Corey to change profession or maybe to hunt some other bad guys. Maybe really something of the "Wrong place wrong time" feel I got from Plum Island, or maybe a good detective story like in "The Book Case" Would love to hear more from Corey's NYPD days.

If you’ve listened to books by Nelson DeMille before, how does this one compare?

Badly. This one doesn't stand up to any of them.

Have you listened to any of Scott Brick’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Quite well. Always liked the guy and he did his job as expected. His main problem was that he used the same intonation for both Corey and Brenner, which probably couln't be helped since he read all Corey as well as all Brenner books.

Did The Panther inspire you to do anything?

Well it didn't exactly inspire me to go to Jemen, but that most likely wasn't the intention. John Corey made a strong case for staying clear of the area.

I listen to the book whilst travelling to and from work, and at times you can't help but smirk and laugh at some of john's internal musings. I have followed DeMille for many years and he has yet to write a dud in my opinion.

As a non American I found the politics of the American agencies interesting - and perhaps this became the central part of the story for me. . The story was well constructed and the history of Yemen helps one understand how the Middle East situation continues decade after decade or century after century. My confusion about why the allied forces are in the Middle East continues, and my heart breaks for all those men and women who are fighting a seemingly un winnable war on my behalf. While the book was not just a political comment, mainly it raised political thoughts and comments for meI like the humour and found the narration engaging. Perhaps I could best sum it up as a typical DeMille book - good story thread with interesting background that can keep you thinking about the wider issues.

What made the experience of listening to The Panther the most enjoyable?

I've read (and then listened to) all of Nelson DeMille's John Corey thrillers, and both the writing and the reading are always superb. Scott Brick again does a very fine job in bringing this novel to audio, wonderfully transposing the witty one-liners and the excitement of the story into a listening experience.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Panther?

The overall descriptions of Yemen (the country) and of course the exciting finale.

Which character – as performed by Scott Brick – was your favorite?

As always: John Corey. Scott Brick IS John Corey.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I very nearly didn't buy this book given other readers reviews. I thought it was more than just very good. Demille has not in my experience written a bad book and this had a great plot , a story well told, and the narration was excellent. If you are a Demille fan then this is for you

I liked listening to this book, specially reading by Scott brick. It gave an in depth knowledge of inside enemy's mind and nature. The details are realistic and accurate. Only some ( I think twice ) unnecessary joke which can upset some people.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

loulabellauk

Surrey, United Kingdom

12/23/12

Overall

"He's back"

Anything Nelson DeMille pens has instant appeal for me. Always packed with action, Anti-Terrorist Task Force agent John Corey and his wife Kate are in the Yemen. The subject matter is Al Qaeda and one of its high ranking elusive operatives and yet the wise cracks from John Corey are endless.and guarantees many humorous moments throughout . Love the length of his books as it gave us so much information about the Yemen and it was certainly a real education and most enjoyable read for me.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Mrs. S. A. Lynch

Leeds West Yorkshire, UK

11/13/12

Overall

"An absolutely fabulous read"

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

John Corey is a very funny character whose witty asides really made this book work for me. I have not tried a Nelson Demille book before but it will not be the last I will certain read others with the John and Kate characters.

The narrator was a really good choice the voice was perfect.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

R. Johnson

2/2/13

Overall

"The Panther"

Not my favorite book, long ,very slow, with grating mispronunciations. One should be used to the American inability to pronounce Middle Eastern names, but Aden is not pronounced Rden, and chai is as Church not Charlotte.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Report Inappropriate Content

If you find this review inappropriate and think it should be removed from our site, let us know. This report will be reviewed by Audible and we will take appropriate action.